Sapphire

Sapphire, a gem excelled in value by no precious stone except diamond, and regarded as a variety of Corundum (q.v.), highly transparent and brilliant. It is sometimes colourless or nearly so. It more frequently exhibits exquisite colour, generally a bright red (i.e. the ruby) or a beautiful blue—the latter being that commonly called sapphire. Purplish or greenish colour indicates a flaw; and usual defects are clouds, milky spots, flakes, or stripes. It is found crystallised, usually in six-sided prisms, terminated by six-sided pyramids; it is sometimes found imbedded in gneiss, but more frequently occurs in alluvial soils. It occurs in Bohemia and Saxony, but European sapphires are of no commercial importance. The finest are found in Ceylon; Cashmere and Burma also produce fine specimens; and sapphires are found in Victoria, New South Wales, and parts of the United States. The value depends on quality more than on size, and does not increase with the size as does that of the ruby. Smaller ones vary from £2 to £12, carat-sized ones from £12 to £25. One of 165 carats, shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, was sold for £8000. In spite of its hardness it is sometimes engraved. It is doubtful if the sapphirus named in Scripture was our sapphire or the Hyacinth (q.v.). By a 'male sapphire' (as in Browning) the ancients meant a dark-hued or indigo sapphire, by a 'female sapphire' one pale blue, approaching to white.